[116]The Word Furrow signifies the Earth that is thrown out, as well as the Trench from whence it is thrown by the Plough.

[117]But if the Wheat is planted very late, it may not be hoeable before the Winter is past; nor is there such a Necessity of hoeing the late planted before the great Frosts are over, as there is of the early-planted; for the later ’tis planted, the less time the Earth has to subside, and grow hard.

Note, By Winter we do not mean only those Months that are properly so reckoned, but also such other Months as have hard Frosts in them, as January, February, and sometimes the Beginning of March.

[118]Tho’ the Ridge in the Middle of the Interval should, for Want of sufficient Mould, or otherwise, be too low to give Shelter, yet there is generally some Earth falls to the Left of the Hoe-plough, and lodges upon that Part which is left on the Outside of the Row; which, notwithstanding that Part be very narrow (as suppose Two or Three Inches), yet a small Quantity of Earth lying thereon, so near to the outside Row, gives an extraordinary Shelter to the young Wheat plants that grow in it.

Shelter is a great Benefit to Wheat; but yet Nourishment is more: for in the Winter I see the Wheat-plants upon the most exposed Part of the Ridge flourish, when single Plants in the Bottom of the Furrow are in a very poor languishing Condition, without any Annoyance of Water, they being upon a Chalk Bottom.

[119]Frost, if it does not kill the Wheat, is of great Benefit to it; Water or Moisture, when it is frozen in the Earth, takes up more Room than in its natural State; this Swelling of the Ice (which is Water congealed) must move and break the Earth wherewith it is mixt; and when it thaws, the Earth is left hollow and open, which is a kind of Hoeing to it. This Benefit is done chiefly to and near the Surface; consequently the more Surface there is, by the Unevenness of the Land, the more Advantage the Soil has from the Frost.

This is another very great Use of the Ridge left in the Middle of the Interval during the Winter; because that Ridge, and its Two Furrows, contain Four Times as much Surface as when level. This thus pulverized Surface, turned in in the Spring hoeing, enriches the Earth, in proportion to its Increase of internal Superficies, and likewise proportionably nourishes the Plants, whose Roots enter it; and that Part of it wherein they do not enter, must remain more enriched for the next Crop, than if the Soil had remained level all the Winter.

[120]It is a vulgar Error that the Winter Rains do not enrich the Earth; and is only thought so, because we do not see the Effect of them upon Vegetables, for lack of Heat in that Season. But some Farmers have frequently observed, that one half of a Ground plowed up just before Winter has produced a Crop of Barley as much better than the other Part plowed up at the End of Winter, as is the Difference of a Dunging, even when there has been very little Frost.

[121]In very light Land, perhaps, we must not hoe quite so near to the Rows of Wheat, as in strong Land, for fear the Winter should lay the Roots bare, and expose them too much to the Cold; but then we may be sure, that, in this Case, the Roots will reach the Interval at a greater Distance than in strong Land; yet such very light Land is not proper for Wheat.

[122]’Tis an errant Mistake of the Vulgar, when they imagine that the immediate Benefit of fresh Earth to Plants is from that Part which remains uppermost; for ’tis from turning the impregnated pulverized Side downwards, to be fed on by the Roots, that gives the Pabulum or Nourishment of the fresh Earth to Plants: The other Side, being turned upwards, becomes impregnate also in a little time.

[123]But note, that when we see Weeds coming up near the Row in the Spring, we plow again from the Rows (and sometimes can plow within one Inch of the Row) before we turn down the Mould from the Middle of the Interval.

[124]If at the next Hoeing we turn another Furrow towards the Row (which is seldom done), then ’tis the next that moves the remaining Earth, left in the Middle of the Interval: But if the next Hoeing be from the Row (as it generally is), then that covers the Middle of the Interval; and then ’tis the next Hoeing after that, that turns all the Earth clean out of the Middle of the Interval toward the Rows.

[125]If the Land was not sufficiently tilled or hoed in the precedent Year, it will require the more Hoeings in the following Year.

[126]The poorer the Land is, the more Hoeings it should have.

[127]A wet Summer may prevent some of the Hoeings that we should perform in a dry Summer.

[128]Our Hoeing deep near the Plants, when small, breaks off only the Ends of the Roots; but after the Roots are spread far in the interval, the greatest Part of them, being then on the Right-hand Side of the Hoe plough, might hold fast on that Side, and not be drawn out; and then the whole Roots would be broken off close to the Bodies of the Plants: Therefore at the Second deep Hoeing, that turns a Furrow from the Row in the Summer, we go about Four or Six Inches farther off from the Roots than the time before; but we go nearer or farther off, according to the Distance of Time between those Two Hoeings: Yet we may hoe shallow near to the Plants at any time, without Injury to their Roots, but, on the contrary, it will be advantageous to them.

[129]If a square Yard of sown Wheat be marked out, and the Stalks thereon numbered in the Spring, it will be found, that Nine parts in Ten are missing at Harvest.

[130]These Rows were drilled a Foot asunder, not hoed; and were, by the Shallowness and Wetness of the Soil, very poor in the Spring; and then, by pouring Urine to the Bottom of this Row, it was so vastly increased above the rest.

[131]Like as the Vines, if well nourished, bring large Bunches of Grapes; but if ill nourished, they produce few Bunches, and those small ones; and many Claspers are formed, which would have been Bunches, if they had had sufficient Nourishment given them at the proper time.

[132]The same Plant that, when poor, sends out but Two or Three Tillers, would, if well nourished by the Hoe, or otherwise, send up a Multitude of Tillers, as is seen in hoed Wheat, and sown Wheat.

[133]Mr. Houghton relates Eighty Ears on one single Plant of Wheat, and a greater Number has been counted lately in a Garden: Those Eighty, reckoned to have Fifty Grains apiece, make an Increase of Four thousand Grains for one; but I have never found above Forty Ears from a single Plant in my Fields; yet there is no doubt, but that every Plant would produce as many as Mr. Houghton’s, of the same Sort, with the same Nourishment; But I should not desire any to be so prolific in Stalks, lest they should fail of bringing such a Multitude of Ears to Perfection. The Four hundred Ears, that I numbered in a Yard, were not weighed, because they were told before ripe; and the greatest Weight of Wheat that ever I had from a Yard, was the Product of about Two hundred and Fifty Ears, and some of them were small.

[134]I have numbered One hundred and Nine Grains in One Ear of my hoed Cone-wheat of the grey Sort; and One Ear of my hoed Lammas-wheat has been measured to be Eight Inches long, which is double to those of sown Wheat. I have some of these Ears now by me almost as long, the longest being given away as a Rarity; and indeed ’tis not every Year that they grow to that Length, and ’tis always where the Plants are pretty single. But there is no Year wherein One Ear of my hoed does not more than weigh Two of the sown Ears, taking a whole Sheaf of each together without choosing. The Sheaves of the hoed are of a different Shape from the other; almost all the Ears of the hoed are at the Top of the Sheaf; but most of the other are situate at the lower Part, or near the Middle of the Sheaf.

[135]Seed Cone wheat coming all out at the same Heap, planted all at the same Time, and on Land of the same Sort adjoining near together, the Wheat that was sown produced Grains so small, and that which was drilled so very large, that no Farmer or Wheat-buyer would believe them to be of the same Sort of Wheat, except those who knew it, which were many. One Grain of the drilled weighed Two of the sown, and there was twice the Chaff in an equal Weight of the sown, being both weighed before and after the Wheat was separated from the Chaff.

[136]The Fact of this nobody can doubt, who has observed the different Products of strong and of weak Plants, how the one exceeds the other.

The greatest Difference of having an equal Crop from a small Number of strong Plants, and from a great Number of weak ones, is, that the Soil is vastly less exhausted by the former than by the latter, not only from the latter’s exhausting more in proportion to their Number when young, and whilst each of them consumes as much Nourishment as each of the small Number; but also from the different Increase that a strong Plant makes by receiving the same Proportion of Food with a weak one: For it appears from Dr. Woodward’s Experiments, that the Plant which receives the least Increase carries off the greatest Quantity of Nourishment in proportion to that Increase; and that ’tis the same with an Animal, all who are acquainted with fatting of Swine know; for they eat much more Food daily for the first Two Weeks of their being put into the Sty, than they do afterwards, when they thrive faster; the fatter they grow, the less they eat.

Hence, I think, it may be inferred, that a Plant, which, by never having been robbed or stinted by other Plants, is strong, receives a much greater Increase from an equal Quantity of Food, than a Number of weak Plants (as thick ones are), equalling the Bulk of the single strong Plant, do.

And this of the Doctor’s have I seen by my own Observations confirmed in the Field in Potatoes, Turneps, Wheat, and Barley; a following Crop succeeds better after an equal Crop, consisting of a bare competent Number of strong Plants, than after a Crop of thick weak ones, cæteris paribus.

Thus the hoed Crops, if well managed, consisting of fewer and stronger Plants than the sown Crops of equal Produce, exhaust the Ground less; whereby, and by the much (I had almost said infinitely) greater Pulveration of the Soil, indifferent good Land may, for any thing I have yet seen to the contrary, produce profitable Crops always without Manure, or Change of Species, if the Soil be proper for it in respect of Heat and Moisture; and also as Crops of some Species, by their living longer, by their greater Bulk, or different Constitution, exhaust more than others, respect ought to be had to the Degree of Richness of the Soil, that is to produce each Species: The Sowing and the Hoeing Husbandry differ so much both in Pulveration and Exhaustion, that no good Argument can be drawn from the former against the latter: But tho’ a too great Number of Plants be, upon many Accounts, very injurious to the Crop, yet ’tis best to have a competent Number; which yet needs not be so exact, but that we may expect a great Crop from Twenty, Forty, or Fifty Plants in a Yard of the treble Row, if well managed.

[137]They do reach through all the Mould (as shall be proved by-and-by); and yet may leave sufficient Pasture behind; because it is impossible for them to come into Contact with all the Mould in One Year; no more than when Ten Horses are put into an Hundred Acres of good Pasture, their Mouths come into Contact with all the Grass to eat it in one Summer, though they will go all over it, as the Vine-roots go all over the Soil of a Vineyard without exhausting it all; because those Roots feed only such a bare competent Quantity of Plants, which do not overstock their Pasture.

The Superficies of the fibrous Roots of a proper Number of Wheat-plants bear a very small Proportion to the Superficies of the fine Parts of the pulverized Earth they feed on in these Intervals; for one cubical Foot of this Earth may, as is shewn in p. 29. have many thousand Feet of internal Superficies: But this is in proportion to the Degree of its Pulveration: and that Degree may be such as is sufficient to maintain a competent Number of Wheat-plants, without over-exhausting the vegetable Pasture, but not sufficient to maintain those, and a great Stock of Weeds besides, without over-exhausting it. And this was plainly seen in a Field of Wheat drilled on Six-feet Ridges, when the South Ends of some of the Ridges, and the North Ends of others, had their Partitions Hand hoed, and cleansed of Weeds, early in the Spring, the opposite Ends remaining full of a small Species of Weeds, called Crow-needles, which so exhausted the whole Intervals of the weedy Part of the Ridges, that the next Year the whole Field being drilled again with Wheat exactly in the Middle of the last Intervals, the following Crop very plainly distinguished how far each Ridge had its Partitions made clean of those small Weeds in the Spring, from the other End where the Weeds remained till full-grown; the Crop of the former was twice as good as that of the latter, even where both were cleansed of Weeds the next Spring. This Crop standing only upon that Part of the Mould, which was farthest from the Rows of the precedent Crop, proves that the Roots, both of the Wheat and Weeds, did enter all the Earth of the former Intervals.

It was also observable, that where the Partitions of Two of the Six-feet Ridges had been in the precedent Year cleansed of Weeds, and those of the adjoining Ridges on each Side of them not cleansed, the Row that was the next Year planted exactly in the Middle of the Interval between those two Ridges, was perceivably better than either of the Two Rows planted in the Intervals on the other Side of each of them: The Reason of which Difference must be, that the Middle of the Interval, that was between the Two cleansed Ridges, was fed on by the Wheat only, and by no Weeds; but the other Two Intervals were fed on by the Wheat on one Side, and by both the Wheat and Weeds on the other Side of each.

There were, in the same Field, several Ridges together, that had the Ends of their Rows of Wheat plowed out by the Hoe-plough, and their other Ends cleansed of Weeds: This was done on purpose, to see what Effect a Fallow would have on the next Crop, which was indeed extraordinary; for these fallowed Ends of the Ridges, being Horse-hoed in the Summer, as the other Ends were, and the Intervals of them made into Ridges, the following Year produced the largest Crop of all; this Crop was received in 1734.

These several different Managements performed in this Field, shewed by the different Success of the Crops in each Sort, what ought to be done, and which is the best Sort of Management.

This Field indeed is some of my best Land; and by all the Experiments I have seen on it, I do not find but that, by the best Management, never omitted in any Year, it might produce good annual Crops of Wheat always, without Assistance of Dung or Fallow; but it would be very difficult for me to get Hands to do this to the greatest Perfection, unless I were able constantly to attend them.

The whole pulverized Earth of the Interval being pretty equally fed on by the former Crop, ’tis no great Matter in what Part of it the following Crop is drill’d: I never drill it but on the Middle of the last Year’s Interval, because there is the Trench whereon the next Year’s Ridge is made with the greatest Conveniency: But there may be some Reason to suspect, that the Plants of the Rows exhaust more Nourishment from that Earth of the Intervals which is farthest from their Bodies, than from that which is nearest to them: Since their fibrous Roots, at the greatest Distance from the Rows, are most numerous, &c. by these the Plants, when they are at their greatest Bulk, are chiefly maintained.

It must be noted, that the above Experiments would not have been a full Proof, if Weeds had been suffered to grow in the Partitions of the Ends of those Ridges, in the Year wherein the Difference appeared. It may also be noted, that a Mixture and Variety of bad Husbandry are useful for a Discovery of the Theory and Practice of good Husbandry.

[138]But the Vulgar compute this Expence of a Foot Breadth of Ground, not only as of the Rent, as they ought, but as an Eleventh Part of their own usual Charges added to the Rent.

And there is Land enough in England to be had, at the Rent of Five Shillings and Six-pence the Acre, that is very proper for Wheat in the Hoeing-Husbandry.

[139]The Objections against these wide Intervals are only for saving a Penyworth or Two of Earth in each Row, or a few Groats-worth of it in an Acre; by saving of which Earth they may lose, in the present and succeeding Crops, more Pounds.

[140]This Narrowness of the Intervals, if the Damage of it be rightly computed, would amount to half the Inheritance of the Land; and was occasioned by the Wilfulness of my Bailiff, who, drilling it upon the Level, ordered the Horse to be guided half a Yard within the Mark, because he fansied the Intervals would be too wide, if he followed my Directions.

[141]Wheat, before Harvest, standing in Rows with wide Intervals betwixt them, may not seem, to the Eye, to equal a Crop of half the Bigness dispersed all over the Land, when sown in the common Manner; and yet there is more Deceit in the Appearance of those different Crops, whilst they are young, and in Grass: We should therefore not judge of them then by our Imagination, but as we do of the Sun and Moon nigh the Horizon, viz. by our Reason.

Imagination often deceives us by Arguments false or precarious; but Reason leads us to Demonstration, by Weights and Measures: Yet this Prejudice will vanish at Harvest before weighing; for then all those wide Intervals that were bare, will be covered with large Ears interfering to hide them quite, and make a finer Appearance than a sown Crop. But ’tis observed, that the Cone-wheat makes the finest Shew, when you look on it length ways of the Rows, both at Harvest, and a considerable time before Harvest.

[142]Non igitur Fatigatione, quemadmodum plurimi crediderunt, nec Senio, sed nostra scilicet Inertia, minus benigne nobis Arva respondent. Colum. lib. xi. cap. 1.

[143]Weeds cannot be killed before they grow, but will lie dormant, as they do in our Partitions, and in their sown Land; and while Seeds are in the Ground, they are always ready to grow at the first Opportunity, and will certainly break out at one time or other; so that preventing their coming, is only like healing up a Wound before it be cured.

[144]I did not weigh this Yard, as different from the other Yards round about it, for I had much Difficulty to determine which Row I should chuse it in; when I was going to cut in one Row, it still seemed that another was better, and I question whether I did chuse the best at last.

Note, Whereas I often mention the Wheat of this Field to be without Dung or Fallow, it must be understood of that Part of the Field wherein my Weighings and other Trials were made: because there was a small Part once fallowed Eight or Nine Years ago, and a little Dung laid on another Part about the last Michaelmas, after the Crop of Oats was taken off. But this being a Year in which Dung is observed to have little or no Effect on sown Wheat (my Dung being weak and laid thin), ’tis the same here; for those Rows which are in the dunged Part, can hardly be distinguished from the rest of the Rows which had not been dunged: And yet the Ends of the Rows which were cleansed of Weeds, are very distinguishable by the Colour of the Wheat, though some are the Third, and some the Fourth Crop since the Difference was made; and the whole Rows managed alike every Year, from that time to this; so that here Un-exhaustion is more effectual than Dung. This is certain, that neither Dung nor Fallow hath been near the Part wherein my Experiments were made.

[145]I allow Two square Yards of their Crops to One Yard in Length of my Treble Row.

[146]I am sorry that this Farm, whereon I have practised Horse-hoeing, being situate on an Hill, that consists of Chalk on one Side, and Heath ground on the other, has been usually noted for the poorest and shallowest Soil in the Neighbourhood.

[147]Eight Bushels make a Quarter.